The Strongest Glass In The World

We all know that diamonds are the strongest natural mineral in the world. But the rarity or the hardness of the diamonds is not what determines their huge price tag of it. However, not long ago the International Mineralogical Association stated that the discovery of a new mineral known as carmeltazite is much harder than diamonds.

The gemstone was found in the region under the influence of Israel. Interestingly enough a group of scientists from China has successfully created their own glass which is believed to be a lot stronger than diamonds.

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The new glass is known as AM-III and this particular glass has very unique structures which give its hardness property and is able to put a deep scratch on diamonds.

Can Act As Semiconductor

Glass is commonly associated with brittleness and fragility and of course not hard at all. But a group of researchers in China managed to invent a new transparent amorphous that is so strong and hard that it can give a good scratch to diamonds.

The other best part is that this high-tech glass also possesses a bandgap of a semiconductor which makes it quite useful to be used in solar panels. This new material was developed by scientists from the University of Yanshan in Hebei, China and as of now it is known as AM-III and was evaluated at 113 gigapascals (GPA) in the Vickers hardness test.

The Vickers hardness test that was used to test the hardness of the material was measured by the tera size that is produced under the force of the pyramid-shaped diamond indentor. The value obtained was much higher than pure diamonds which only have the Vickers score of 70-100 GPa but slightly less than the hardest diamond with a score of 150 GPa.

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For other comparisons, AM-III is 10 times harder than soft metals and can be 20 to 100 times harder than most bulletproof glasses out there.

Shaped Like Diamonds, Looks Like Glass

Similar to diamonds, the AM-III structure is mostly made from nanocarbon. But not identical to the carbon atom structure in diamonds which are arranged in an orderly manner. Glass on the other hand has an unorganized internal structure which is typical for an amorphous.

This is the main reason why glass can easily crack and break. But the microstructure of AM-III looks somewhat organized similar to crystals. So this made AM-III partially glass and partially crystal at the same time which explains why it has immense strength.

In order to make AM-III, Chinese researchers are forced to use a much more complicated process than making fake diamonds. The most common way to create a synthetic diamond in the industry is known as high pressure, high temperature (HPHT).

During the process of HPHT, the carbon was put under high temperature and pressure similar to the process of how diamonds were formed deep into Earth at the temperature of 1,300 °C(1650 to 2370 °F) and the pressure of 50,000 times much bigger than the surface.

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The researchers started out with fullerene which is also known as buckminsterfullerene. This molecule contains at least 60 carbon atoms arranged in a structure that formed either a ball or sphere with a diameter of 1 nm.

This carbon ball is usually soft and slippery but after going through high heat and pressure, the carbon ball will be destroyed and mixed together. This fullerene will then be forced under 25 GPa of pressure and 1,200 °C (2,192 °F) of temperature.

Despite all of that, the researchers will also need to take precautions in order to get to this state gradually which will take them around 12 hours. If the process was done too quickly, it will turn the carbon ball into diamonds instead.

The transparent products that are produced are not only hard but also act as a semiconductor with a bandgap range similar to silicon which is the main semiconductor material used in electronics.

Aside from becoming a bulletproof glass, it has also been proven its use in the solar panel industry in which it can shine by allowing the sunlight to reach the photovoltaic cell and at the same time can also increase the lifespan of the product.

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